Lupines,2011

It's being a wet-ish spring. The plants around here are looking really good. And so are the mosquitoes.

Snyder

I'm slowly getting back on track.

My dog continues to impress me. Smarter than me, well sometimes.
But he waits for me, minds pretty well, and knows how to have fun.

A warbler.

Northern Parula

A bird flitted by, it was small, I didn't get a good look. Then a cedar waxwing  sat with a strawberry in it's beak, I looked up and saw a small face. She was watching me.

News

On June 4, my mom passed away.  She had been in bed the week and a half prior to that, and both my sister and I were with her when she died. It's a mixture of relief and sadness for us, her life had been hard the last year, she lost her ability to walk, and watching that slow chipping away of her was making it very hard for us and her.

Leave the seat down.

Please. It pisses off the porcupines.
Warning some may find the following photo disturbing, view at your own risk.

This is what happens when a porcupine gets into an outhouse.  Besides the scat on the seat, there was quills, shredded toilet paper (from the red squirrels) and copious amounts of porcupine urine.  Most people who have porcupines for neighbors know the amount of damage they can do to wood.  Back in May 2009, I wrote about the damage they did to an outhouse, and well they made the insides less than attractive.  The question now is how desperate are you?

Old Building

 

I love old houses and buildings. They have character that only age can give.

Books!

Here it is  another rainy,drizzly afternoon in Maine. Our snow continues it's slow melt, no frogs yet, but our spring migrants are beginning to make guest appearances.

One of the hazards of poking around the internet is you keep finding more books to read. I have been keeping my eye on Tracks and Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates for a while, and I finally got it.
And in the same line I found Bird Tracks & Sign and Mammal Tracks & Sign.  The bookshelves groan under the weight.

 Another place I have found helpful  is Acorn Naturalists out in California. They are more for outdoor educators, but if anyone has an interest in nature, they are well worth visiting.

And here's a gratuitous photo of Snyder and me.